Idealized
by OveliaGirlHaditRight
Summary: Kairi ISN'T kidnapped by Xemnas in Kingdom Hearts III, and this is how the story changes from there. Slight SoKai. Kairi-centric.


**Sora's PoV**

Being surer on his feet than he'd used to be even when he had to jump over the hole in the bridge at home, Sora _leapt_ to where Xemnas was pulling Kairi away from him and caught her arm with his own and he _pulled_.

And Sora felt awful for doing this, because Kairi had already been hurt enough by what Xemnas had done to her and now he was close to pulling her arm from out of its socket… but he could do nothing else: For Sora felt if he let Kairi go into the dark corridor with the man that both he and Roxas hated so much, that much worse would happen to her.

"Give it up, Xemnas!" Sora heard himself say, but it was with a roaring in his ears that made him feel like he was underwater. "No matter what you do, I'm never letting go of her!"

Kairi was much the worse for wear right now with her shoulders—and how her feet only barely scraped against the ground from how Xemnas was holding her—but at his words,, Kairi began kicking blindly at Xemnas' shins: it wasn't doing much damage, Sora could see, because Xemnas had put himself far enough away from her that she couldn't reach him. But it was still doing something.

And Roxas, Xion, and Lea who had finally woken up to what was happening with Kairi tried to help, too.

Roxas leapt up into the air, and extended beams of light all around him—though Xemnas had moved away with Kairi (and Sora, who was still holding onto her), so that only the outer ones were even slightly touching him.

Xion took a moment to gather her strength, it looked like, but then she was all over Xemnas before Sora could even blink: hitting him _fast_, this way and that.

And Lea, in having given up on his broken Keyblade at the moment, summoned his chakrams to hand and lit them on fire and he threatened Xemnas while he did it: "Maybe I can't do melee attacks as well, but I'm positively _lethal_ at long-ranged. Got it memorized?"

Xemnas scoffed after Lea's words—and how Sora wished he could wipe that smug look right off his face!—and in seemingly realizing he was outnumbered , he let Kairi fall right into Sora's waiting arms.

"If you must have the Princess that badly, then have her. We will find another way."

And then Xemnas vanished, with that ominous note hanging in the air.

To Kairi's credit, she did not cry when everything became calm again and she could breathe. Though Sora wouldn't have blamed her if she had.

Instead, after everyone was done trying their best to heal her, she said despairingly: "I never should have come."

Sora opened his mouth to respond to the words, but Lea beat him to the punch with exactly what he _would've_ said. "Kairi, what are you talking about? We needed you. And as I hear it, if you hadn't saved a certain spiky-haired brunet over here, we'd all be dead..."

"Honestly, Kairi, don't sell yourself short. You're not too far off in skill from where I am right now," Xion told Kairi in a very sympathetic light. And while Sora himself still might not have known much about the girl, if she had a heart like this—where she cheered on people who needed it—he couldn't have been gladder that she existed.

"Yeah, Kairi," even the quiet Roxas continued everyone else's thoughts, for which Sora couldn't have been prouder of his Other: and he even left Kairi's side for a moment to clap a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Don't blame yourself just because Xemnas is a massive manipulator and just drove to drive the knife in even more."

"Kairi, I-" There was so much Sora wanted to say here. So much he _should've_ said... but instead, he settled on something he'd been hoping to save for later: when everything was well and good again. "I love you. So please don't hate _yourself_."

Kairi's eyes shined here with an emotion that Sora couldn't name, and she started to whisper his name, but then silenced herself. The princess then folded her hands over her lap gently and turned away from everyone. And then Sora could barely even hear her: "I'm just going to go now."

"Kairi, no! Wait!" Sora yelled, as he reached his hand out yet again… but it was too late. His girl was already heading back towards the maze that Sora himself had just come from, running faster than Sora had ever seen her move in his life as she pulled her hood over her head.

"...Let her go, Sora. We'll find her... afterwards. And maybe it's better this way." Roxas told Sora in a voice that he could hear easier than anything else right now, even if he didn't _completely_ agree with it.

"But- but what if she runs into some trouble back there… and since she's far away from us... we don't never know about it and aren't there to save her when she needs us?!" Sora demanded, tears starting to fall from his eyes as he thought about still losing Kairi now, even if he had just rescued her from Xemnas.

This was just... too much. He'd already lost her once... almost had again, and now Kairi didn't even want to be by his side anymore?

"…Xemnas seemed pretty adamant that he wouldn't go after her, Sora... And Even without Kairi, we have our Seven Lights so he should have no reason to hurt _her_ light," Xion explained, a distant look in her eyes—almost acting like she got what Kairi was going through, but at the same time understood why she had to go through it alone.

A slight rain had started now—something that Sora found fitting with all that this place stood for, and all the tears that were still sure to come—and if he found relief in anything, it was knowing that at least there'd be more mud here and no dust: so hopefully he could see into the distance better if it came down to it.

"My Keyblade's broken, Sora…" Lea said wisely. And a bitter part of Sora—becoming more and more so with this War—had to wonder when it was that _Lea_ had come that, but he was also thrilled for it if he was guessing correctly how Lea was about to end his sentence. "I know Kairi wants to be alone, so I won't go with her. But I'll hang back near her, in case she needs me."

"O-okay," Sora relented, even trying to smile like he was supposed to do—right?—but not quite managing it.

But summoning his Keyblade to hand—for he had unintentionally dismissed it with all the talking—Sora took off to find the other annoying Darknesses, with Roxas and Xion hot on his heels.

**Kairi's PoV**

Kairi sat back at the beginning of the world—a place that already had such painful memories for her now, that it was crazy—and cried.

It was just that she wasn't supposed to be useless like this anymore!

But when Xemnas had grabbed her, Kairi hadn't been able to do _anything_ and it had been like _nothing_ had changed! And now, with her injuries, she doubted that she could help in this War anymore at all.

Sighing resignedly, she looked at her only companion. "I guess it's just you and me, Orb."

So, this was one of Kairi's secrets: she had somewhat been spying on Sora's most recent travels. Master Yen Sid had machines that could read the stars and make sense of what they were trying to show. And the few times that Kairi had been at the Mysterious Tower in the last months, she had looked at Sora's progress.

She did this only so she could try and learn from his battle skills… but through this action, Kairi had seen the Battle Gates that her beloved sometimes went through. And the princess knew that this sphere before her now was one of them.

Sora had always honed his skills in these things… so now that Kairi was at the most depressed she had ever been when it came to her lack of fighting talent, she thought that perhaps she could do the same: so drawing closer to the device and putting a hand onto it, Kairi closed her eyes and dreamed of a better life.

When the redhead opened her eyes, she was in the place she had just left… but in an idealized version of it, like when Sora went to the worlds via the World Terminus before the Heartless showed up there: Kairi remembered it well.

But what _wasn't_ an idealized version of the Keyblade Graveyard was the monster that was now staring back at Kairi. It appeared to be a giant Invisible? With a scarf that reminded the fashionista of ascots that men had worn back in the day, as well as something akin to Sora's One-Winged-Angel Keychain in both of its hands? Also, jetpacks at its feet.

The boss—for surely it was that—came at Kairi at once. And as rough as it was—because the way it was hacking hacking hacking at her face, that she very carefully had to guard against, was worse than anything she'd already faced—the action allowed Kairi to forget about her emotions for a moment, and just _be_.

Kairi's nemesis also tried to do an attack where he created a force field to ram into her over and over again—clearly he'd been taking lessons from Ansem Seeker of Darkness—and since Kairi still wasn't very apt at some Abilities, the only way she avoided this at all was by sending Pearl after Pearl attack its way… until the energy eventually built up and exploded in the villain's face enough, that even its shield couldn't protect it anymore and it stopped moving closer to her because of it.

There were also times that the… Dark Inferno? Was that its name? Naminé in Kairi's head certainly seemed to be screaming that it was—sucked all of the light out of the room. And it was the beams it would throw at Kairi here, and not the encroaching darkness, that would nearly end her. But she just rolled quite a bit, like she knew Sora had often done, and was able to get out of it.

And then it was rinse and repeat, and the battle became much less interesting… and Kairi was almost bored—but in a giddy sort of way?—because while this foe was more formidable than the Darknesses, it was still just one being compared to their thirteen.

Eventually, Kairi attacked the Heartless in sending fire after fire at it—thinking that maybe her mistake before this War had started, was deciding to just be nice from now on. Perhaps she needed her fire?—and she just prayed beyond hope that her dream of succeeding against this time sink would make the storm end here, in more ways than one, and make everything alright again...

But Kairi's hopes didn't completely win out, since she _did_ finally succeed in one-upping the Dark Inferno but passed out just as she did so.

Kairi later awoke on her knees, exhausted, but pushed herself up with her hands, nonetheless.

The other Guardians of Light were nowhere to be seen—except for Lea. Did she see him out of the corner of her eye grinning at her, like the sweet older brother he was?—but hadn't she been counting on that exact thing when she'd run off? Maybe she wasn't being fair, she would allow…

And what else wasn't fair? Kairi noticed that her new outfit from the Three Good Fairies had disappeared, thus only leaving her favorite salmon dress from before behind. And even if Kairi was maybe starting to think the part of her that had taken on the Castle That Never Was was the best version of herself, she _did_ mourn the physical representation the Fairies had given her that she was getting closer to her Keyblade… And remembering how she had felt a year ago, in waiting on that Island, Kairi just felt alone.

In the past, when Kairi had gotten super involved in her studies and didn't have time for Sora and Riku for a change, she'd heard Sora muttering before "you know how she is when she gets determined"… and if things had been a little different today, he probably would have told Roxas, Xion, and Lea that here.

And while Kairi was mostly glad for the vote of confidence, that Sora had just listened to her request about dealing with her misgivings by herself, and apparently trusted her to not get into any more trouble on her own… she also couldn't help wishing that Sora had just stayed with her in her darkest hour, and had fought this… Dark Inferno thing with her.

But it was exactly as Kairi was thinking that, when she saw Sora running her way… waving his arms at her pretty wildly, with a smile on his face, as if he was trying to flag down some sort of vehicle.

He was hunched over and breathing heavily when he did reach her, but was able to force himself to talk soon after, anyway: something that Kairi appreciated, because she needed to hear his voice more than ever right now. "Kairi… I know you said you wanted to be alone. But I also realize I was probably stupid to believe that. I mean, who ever _really_ wants that? …And you were the one person who never left me on my first quest, so I have to return the favor. Right?"

Kairi smiled—it was hard not to. Sora's happiness was just so infectious and made her feel cheerful in even the darkest of times—and decided that she wasn't going to tell Sora she needed him constantly by her side on this first real adventure of hers. After all, a lot of this was her trying to learn to stand on her own, when the situation called for it, and to help _him_ that way… but she didn't deny it, either. And rather cheekily, she flipped her hair and leaned towards Sora when she announced, "I just won a boss fight!"

And to say that Sora's face was the equivalent of a lit-up Christmas tree here would have been an understatement. And Kairi knew he was dreaming of saying "Really?!", and having her tell him all about it… but surely only held back in doing that with the knowledge that they were still at war.

He did offer Kairi another olive branch, though. "Kairi… I think the Darknesses are at an impasse. Us Lights don't want to attack any more Darknesses, because we know what will happen if we do. And even the Darknesses are starting to turn against this idea. Why don't you go back to Master Xehanort with me, who I'm pretty sure must be writing a surrender statement at this very second… and trying to figure out how to get on our good list, so we don't make him do community service at Radiant Garden fountain."

Kairi giggled at that—she couldn't help it. Sora was getting funnier every day…He must have learned from the best: her—and took his hand, as they left this place of nightmares and went to see what more was going on with this skirmish and their friends.

…Sadly, things didn't go as Sora had planned. Xehanort had found some light Keyblade wielders from the past! Ones that had existed in the first Keyblade War, apparently, and had left a note promising to meet up with a "Player" before they "died"? And before the Seven Guardians' very eyes, Xehanort killed them all now.

And since all the Lights were wonderful people, they couldn't stand for this and all attacked the evil Master—for keeping those pour souls in captivity for years, only to kill them at this key instance… And that anger on their part was exactly what was needed to create the X-Blade.

And even if Kairi could pretty much feel the world ending beneath her feet now (surely hurting both the past and their chance at a future was bad), she knew it wasn't all doom and gloom. Because she, Riku, and Sora were all together again—and with Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Roxas, Lea, Xion, Aqua, Ventus, Terra, and Naminé within Kairi's heart—and there was nothing they couldn't accomplish.

Somehow, they would set things right.

**Author's Note: I swear I don't have a vendetta against Kairi's KHIII self, KHIII design or anything like that. This is weird to admit... But the part where her KHIII outfit disappears to reveal her KHII one, is actually because I was stuck in this story for a moment... and was actually writing that section as "Winx Club" to get passed it: I channeled when Bloom was fighting this strange, rectangular device that had shown up at Alfea and was indestructible (though that didn't stop Bloom from trying to annihilate it), and she eventually passed out and her fairy garb disappeared to reveal her normal outfit because of it (as always happens when the fairies in that series pass out). But I do think it did end up working well for the story.**

**And the part where Sora is being bitter, and saying he's getting even more bitter every day, is me maybe hinting at the "Sora is the Master of Masters" theory just for fun, but you don't have to see it that way if you don't want to-as that has nothing at all to do with this fic.**

**I wrote a "Kairi saves herself from getting killed" fic before (that I need to re-post), so this is my "Kairi isn't kidnapped" one.**


End file.
